UC Berkeley News: Stadium Science

10/17/2011; 5 minutes

UC Berkeley's 1923 Memorial Stadium sits on top of an active earthquake fault. In case of a major quake, the Hayward fault could tear the ground apart below the stadium. A huge retrofit project is well underway, and the seismic solutions that are being implemented have never been tried before. The stadium is being rebuilt so that parts of it will actually be mobile, moving with the shifting earth when the rupture occurs. The new state-of-the-art press box, sitting above the stadium at eight stories high, will be able to rock back and forth. Berkeley's earthquake scientists are known to be among the best in the world, and they played a key role in working with the design team on the retrofit. There's also a large training facility being built underground next to the stadium, for use by 13 Cal sports teams. (#22923)

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